Not Fit For Company – Friday Fictioneers

Good Wednesday, my peeps! Well.. for another 7 minutes in my neck of the woods anyway! Didn’t think I’d have the energy to come up with anything and then tried not to go any particularly direct route (as I like to do, anyway) so… voilà…

Thank you to Rochelle for keeping us in line each and every week. Thank you to all of you who participate and reciprocate, which makes this weekly get-together all the better. And this week, thank you to Yvette Prior for allowing us to use this photo… I won’t even ask what that’s all about, k? To play along, please click on the blue frog below. Not sure how this works? Easy peasy! 100 words – no more but less is accepted (not including the title) – one story, beginning, middle and end. Hook up with the frog!

Not Fit For Company

She had that deep, sexy voice you just couldn’t forget. And a laugh that included everyone within hearing distance. And, always dressed to kill. Not overkill, mind you, but always in good taste, well put together, you know? Clothes, make-up, jewellery, the whole shebang. Never ever would you see her out in public in sweat pants and no make-up. Never in a million years.

Had never been inside her home, always said it wasn’t fit for company. Laugh and say, ya right! Then one day, she called. She’d fallen and couldn’t get up. So I went. Man, she was right.

114 thoughts on “Not Fit For Company – Friday Fictioneers”

What a masterful collection of lung cancer she has accrued on that coffee table! And I’ve got to think her falling has something to do with her beverage of choice. Hopefully she fell close to the coffee table so’s she could partake whilst waiting for help!

Her place… it looks like a batchelors flat after three months of no girl friend to convert him from his sluvernly ways. Your spin painted a hoarder an eccentric older lady that let it all run away from her … until she had no choice. I envision her coming home from hospital and the neighbours have her house pristine all ordered and clean. The woman as crotchety as hell that the nosy buggers have rooted through stole her stuff and made it smell like a perfumed bordello. Haaaahaha! Sorry Dale I got soemwhat carried away. Good work!

Back when I was a carpenter, we built a house next door to a guy like your character. He dressed impeccibly, but you could barely see the floor inside his house and the kitchen table was piled with empty TV dinner trays, flies, and ants. I almost hurled!

I loved the voice in this story because it’s so beautifully conversational. It feels like having a gossip with you about a third party. You chuckle at the contrast without ever being malicious. It’s a super story – I loved it!
And what a good prompt it turned out to be, didn’t it?

Aww thank you, Penny! You leave the best comments! I am so very glad you saw there was no maliciousness.
It really did! I am glad it didn’t cause an insane amount of the same story over and over. I like to think that everyone is trying to go outside of the box..

I have never worked so hard under such painful conditions. I finally found the medicinal word that seems to help. FUCK!!! I can then throw a noun or pronoun in for additional leverage. Me, you, it, them, us, him, us. You know how it goes. 😀

I can only imagine…. It is the “go-to” word, is it not? And depending on the vehemence used, can be more or less satisfying! And yes.. nouns and pronouns add leverage as does using FUCK as a verb or adverb… I’m sure you could do a whole post on it once you are no longer feeling such pain…

I like the way you avoided the cigarette / cancer write.
I folded and went with it. I guess it’s because I detest smoking so much.
Anywho … my 2nd thought … who lives like this??? Eeekkk !!!
Great job on writing this little tale of filth discovery.
Izzy 😎

That was a nice take on the photo –
And there is no story behind it – but trust me – it is not any of my coffee tables – it is a picture I took while traveling (their hit tub was to the left) – and side note – I could not even be around cigarette smoke for many years because it made me ill – my throat would start to close (like an allergy)
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And your story actually reminded me of an episode of “hoarders” I saw a long time ago – a middle aged lady was so tidy with her appearance and did outfits and makeup everyday / but her house was “buried alive”
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Anyhow – nice social take

Appearances matter to many. I once stayed for a week in my company’s shared accomodation with other bachelors. Personally all were well dressed but the house? Took me a day of cleaning to make it inhabitable.

Very engaging story, Dale. Very interesting character. Based on how she carried herself in public, no one would imagine that her home would be in such a state. It’s funny that although she as much as admitted that it wasn’t fit for company, no one believed her until the narrator saw it personally. Great character illustration.